AMD has released its latest Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.2.1 driver which brings optimizations for the upcoming Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age game as well as a couple of other bug fixes.

According to the release notes, the new Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.2.1 driver adds support and optimizations for the Square Enix's Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, which launched on the PC yesterday. On the PC, the game has 60fps support, compatibility with 21:9 monitors and multi-monitor setups as well as a couple of other in-game features.

In addition to this, the new Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.2.1 driver also fixes some earlier noticed issues including a fix for Radeon FreeSync stutter in full screen games on single-display congfigurations where it can rapidly change between min and max range when enabled, fix for Sid Meier's Civilization V not launching on Hybrid Graphics configurations on DX9 API, a fix black screen issues on Samsung CH791 monitor with Radeon FreeSync, fix for Radeon Chill and Radeon Overlay in Vulkan API games, fix for corruption issues in Need For Speed Payback, and a fix for corrupted textures in Hyperdimension Neptunia Re:Birth3 V Generation game.

The new Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.2.1 supports all graphics cards since Radeon HD 7700/7900 series and is available for Windows 7 and Windows 10 in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Select members of the press at CES 2018 show had a chance to spend some time with Dell's latest XPS 15 2-in-1 convertible laptop which was running on Intel's 8th generation Kaby Lake CPU with Radeon RX Vega M graphics and while some were quite keen to check out the cooling, some had a chance to run Rise of the Tomb Raider game.

The new Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 can also be configured with up to 16GB of RAM, up to 1TB of PCIe storage, and either the 15.6-inch Ultrasharp 4K UHD (3840x2160) InfinityEdge touch screen or the 15.6-inch FHD (1920x1080) InfinityEdge touch screen. It also comes with a 75WHr battery which should keep it running for about 15 hours, at least according to Dell. All of this is packed in a premium looking CNC-machined aluminum chassis with Gore Thermal Insulation, special maglev keyboard, and support for its new Dell Premium Active Pen.

Since the new XPS 15 2-in-1 is a much thinner laptop/convertible (with 9-16mm thickness), Dell had to somewhat reinvent the cooling. Since the actual package takes less board space, Dell has equipped it with two dedicated 86x86mm fans which have a higher number of metal-infused blades and three copper heatpipes to cool the 65W Kaby Lake-G CPU.

On the other hand, Hothardware.com focused on testing that same Kaby Lake-G CPU. Bear in mind that this is the slower Core i5-8305G CPU, paired up with 16GB of RAM and a fast NVMe PCIe SSD and that we are still looking at early drivers, so results could be higher once both Dell, Intel, and AMD further tune the performance.

According to tests, the XPS 15 2-in-1 managed to get an average frame rate of 34.87 frames per second in Rise of the Tomb Raider on high image quality settings (it could also be very high settings as it still needs to be confirmed) and at 1920x1080 resolution.

The Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 can outperform the Acer Swift 3 with Intel's 8th gen CPU and Geforce MX 150, which got an average of 23.56fps. Just for laughs, Hothardware.com threw in an average score of Intel's 8th gen CPU with HD 620 IGP, which managed to get measly 8.23fps on medium settings.

While this performance is far from great and will get you playable framerates in just some of the games at lower quality settings, it is still quite impressive for such a thin and light laptop and Dell is aiming to get the performance somewhere between the GTX 1050 and the GTX 1060 Max-Q.

As announced earlier by Dell, the new XPS 15 2-in-1 will be launching in spring 2018, starting at US $1299.99.

AMD took the CES 2018 show by storm, revealing a lot of information regarding its GPU and CPU futures as well as some of the upcoming new products, including its desktop APUs.

Named the Ryzen Desktop Processor with Radeon Vega Graphics, it will offer up to 2 TFLOPs of computing power, have full AM4 compatibility and offer advanced Radeon features, according to AMD. AMD is targeting consumer, commercial, workstation and enterprise desktop PCs, where there is no, or little need for discrete graphics cards.

Currently, AMD plans to launch the G-series desktop APUs on February 12th, including the Ryzen 5 2400G and the Ryzen 3 2200G. The Ryzen 5 2400G features a quad-core CPU part with eight threads and 6MB of cache, working at a maximum boost clock of 3.9GHz. It also features integrated Radeon RX Vega graphics with 11 Compute Units (CUs), clocked at maximum GPU clock of 1250MHz and it targets the 45-65 CTDP range.

The Ryzen 3 2200G features a quad-core CPU part and lacks SMT, so it is stuck with only four threads. It also has 6MB of cache and works at a maximum CPU clock of 3.7GHz. It also has a slightly lower Radeon Vega 8 IGP with 8 Compute units and 1100MHz maximum GPU clock. Interestingly, it targets the same 45-65W CTDP.

According to AMD's own internal benchmarks, the Ryzen 5 2400G should be enough to offer 1080p game performance, at decent detail levels, in some games like The Witcher 3, Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, Overwatch (medium details), Battlefield 1 and Rocket League and it will have no trouble handling MOBA-style games. AMD is also targeting Intel's quite popular Core i5-8400 CPU and claims that in order for it to be comparable, you need to pair the i5-8400 with Nvidia GT 1030 to reach the same performance level.

The Ryzen 3 2200G is aiming to offer best-in-class eSports game performance and even manages to pull some decent frame rates in several games, of course at lower detail settings, but due to its price, should be quite popular among MOBA gamers.

What makes these APUs quite interesting is the fact that they incorporate a lot of Radeon technologies, including the Enhanced Sync, Radeon Chill, Radeon ReLive, Freesync 2 and others, something that AMD was quite keen to note.

It is also worth noting that all desktop G-series APUs will be unlocked and overclockable, something that might not be interesting for an average consumer but could give a few additional FPS to go over that 30fps mark. AMD has been overclocking it at the event, pushing both the GPU and as well as the memory to achieve a 39 percent increase in performance.

The new G-series Ryzen Desktop Processors with Radeon Vega graphics will be launching on February 12th with a price set at US $149 for the Ryzen 5 2400G and US $99 for the Ryzen 3 2200G.

AMD has admitted that the Radeon RX 560 which is in the shops now is essentially a rebranded older model.

Yesterday we revealed that AMD had changed the Radeon RX 560 so that it had a similar spec to older cards. Unfortunately, it had mixed the downgraded cards with the older ones which meant you had to be a real geek to spot the difference.

What made the whole thing worse was that it had carried out the change after all the reviews were out and it failed to tell anyone about it.

Now AMD has released a statement which confirmed that there were hobbled versions of the Radeon RX 560 with 14 Compute Unit (896 stream processors) and 16 Compute Units (1024 stream processors) released onto the market.

“We introduced the 14CU version this summer to provide AIBs and the market with more RX 500 series options”, AMD said.

However, now AMD said that it had “come to our attention that on certain AIB and etail websites there’s no clear delineation between the two variants.

“We’re taking immediate steps to remedy this: we’re working with all AIB and channel partners to make sure the product descriptions and names clarify the CU count so that gamers and consumers know exactly what they’re buying. We apologise for the confusion this may have caused.”

So basically it is saying that there is a Radeon RX 560 which got all the reviews and a Radeon RX 560 which is a rebranded earlier model and it is difficult to tell them apart. It is having a word with its partners to make sure that they are branded correctly. No mention of giving people their money back if they bought the wrong card.

AMD has decided to tickle your fancy for and upcoming major driver update - set to arrive by the end of this year.

Called the "Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition" and named after the Adrenalin Rose, the Radeon Software major driver update which is coming in December is rumored to bring plenty of new features and improvements.

The latest rumor, coming from a Twitter user, indicated including an OSD feature which will allow people to monitor FPS, GPU temperature, GPU clock, GPU fan, and other performance details.

AMD was also keen to brag about some of the accomplishments its drivers have managed to achieve during past few years. This includes the highest user satisfaction rating of any AMD software ever with Radeon Software Crimson Edition and the same 90 percent user satisfaction for 12 straight months for the latest Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition. Now that's bragging.

AMD certainly deserves a lot of credit as its driver releases have never been better and it appears they have a winning team when it comes to Radeon Software, it seems to Fudzilla.

AMD also noted that Radeon Software has delivered 70 software releases, launch day support for over 75 games, over 50 new or enhanced features and more than 250 million downloads in the past three years.

AMD seems pretty excited about the next major Radeon Software update and we are definitely looking forwards to it.

AMD has released its latest Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition 17.11.4 Beta driver which brings support for Oculus Dash Open Beta and Doom VFR as well as fixing a couple of bugs.

According to the release notes, the RSCRE 17.11.4 Beta driver features support and optimizations for Oculus Dash Open Beta, which is a part of Oculus' Rift Core 2.0 update, as well as Doom VFR, a virtual reality version of Bethesda's Doom game.

The same release notes also include a couple of fixed problems including a fixed bug for system instability on Radeon RX Vega series graphics cards when HBCC segment size is adjusted, system hang when switching display modes in Star Wars Battlefront II on certain graphics cards in Crossfire and a fix for incorrect power and clock values on some Radeon RX Vega series graphics cards.

You can download the latest Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition 17.11.4 Beta driver and check out the full release notes over at AMD's support page where it is available for Windows 7 and Windows 10 in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

It appears that the AMD AIB-partners have finally started to come up with custom RX Vega graphics cards and Gigabyte has just announced its own custom RX Vega 64 and RX Vega 56 graphics cards, with a custom PCB and Windforce 2X cooler.

Although only the RX VEGA 64 GAMING OC 8G is listed on Gigabyte's website, it appears that both the custom RX Vega 64 and the custom RX Vega 56 from Gigabyte will share the design. Speaking of the design, Gigabyte went all-in with a custom-design PCB with 12+1-phase VRM, drawing power from two 8-pin PCIe power connectors, ultra durable design with high-grade chokes and capacitors, and a factory-overclock which puts the GPU base clock at 1276MHz and the GPU Boost clock at 1560MHz (1247/1546MHz reference).

In order to keep those power-hungry Vega GPUs well cooled, Gigabyte has decided to use a version of its Windforce 2X cooler with two 100mm fans which spin in opposite directions, split heatsink with angular fin design, copper heatpipes in direct contact with the GPU, and a special backplate with a heatpipe and copper block behind the GPU.

Gigabyte also slightly changed the display output configuration, leaving it with three HDMI 2.0b and three DisplayPort 1.4 outputs and marketing an ability to run up to six monitors at the same time.

Unfortunately, we do not have any details regarding a custom version of Gigabyte's RX Vega 56 but hopefully, that one will show up soon as well and we guess it could be based on a similar design. Gigabyte did not reveal any details regarding the price or the availability date but judging by other partners, these should show up on retail/e-tail shelves before Christmas.

Unfortunately, the release notes do not provide any further details other than these intermittent crash bugs could be experienced on "some" Radeon RX Vega series graphics products.

AMD has also listed a couple of known issues that should be fixed in future including problems seen in games like Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Overwatch, as well as bugs seen with its own Radeon WattMan and Radeon Settings. There are also a couple of random issues with configurations using 12 GPUs for compute workloads and systems switching to Compute mode when AMD Crossfire is enabled.

You can find the new Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition 17.11.3 Radeon RX Vega Hotfix drivers over at AMD's support page where it is available for 64-bit versions of the Windows 10 and Windows 7 OS.

Last Monday Intel announced that it is using AMD graphics with HBM2 memory in its thinner notebooks and its own Kaby Lake G CPU. Intel didn’t reveal many details but Fudzilla can confirm via our well-placed industry sources that this is a Vega GPU and the project was codenamed P22.

This Kaby Lake G meets Vega HMB 2 product took years and it only stared with the formation what we know, or used to know as the Radeon Technology Group. This was in very late 2015. The first "Intel uses AMD’s Radeon” product was announced just two days before Intel made the splashy announcement that Raja Koduri is joining Intel as chief architect, and senior vice president of the newly formed Core and Visual Computing Group. This is, of course, no coincidence.

Attack Nvidia

Intel wanted to show investors and especially Nvidia that it can snatch someone who can make a GPU for Artificial Intelligence AI / Machine Learning ML and potentially professional and gaming market chip too. Read multiple solutions.

A few months ago, when Fudzilla confirmed that Intel might license AMD graphics we were heavily criticized that we were making things up. Before Intel announced that it has this one project where the company is using AMD’s graphics in its laptops, many people chose not to believe Kyle Bennet or Fudzilla. Yes, we do know how unlikely that looked like from where most were standing. Over the course of my now 18 years carrier, Fudzilla and my previous home, the INQUIRER under the supervision of Mike Magee, we broke dozens of stories. That is what we do, we are here to understand the big picture and tie the connections and dots.

We are still not ready to give up on the story as the Radeon technology group and Intel cooperation/licensing makes perfect sense. For now, it is the one announced notebook chip, but our sources are very sure that there is a roadmap of products. We have Intel to confirm that there is a cooperation, we chose to call it licensing, but one can argue that this is the Intel purchasing chips from AMD partnership.

Radeon Vega meets Kaby Lake G

Even if you want to emphasize that this is a cooperation deal, you have to realize that in the last two years and even today Intel and AMD engineers are working together on P22, Vega based graphics solution with the Kaby Lake G processor. It takes a few years to make these things from the ground up.

Apple was one of the companies which initiated this cooperation. Apple wants good graphics in thin form factor, but we are sure that Intel pitched this solution to major OEMs too.

Business wise, this makes perfect sense as it is addressing a market loophole. This is especially important since it has been a few years since Nvidia shipped a single GPU to Apple. Apple holds some grudge about Nvidia, so big that it simply ignores company’s roadmap. But Apple is a most important customer that plays however it wants to.

Now, we would not exclude the fact that Intel wanted to acquire Radeon Technology Group as Intel wants better graphics. If it could get away with the regulatory agencies, Intel would digest the whole of AMD as it definitely has the cash for it, and it would probably make it quite great. This is however, very unlikely.

What still remains as a possibility is Intel’s Core processors in the future with Radeon graphics. There is no timestamp for something like this, but our sources confirmed that there have been talks that took place quite some time ago.

With last week’s announcements, we believe that Radeon inside of Core products in the future is a possibility. Even if that doesn’t happen Intel can make a GPU, it will just take more time.

The potential would be amazing, AMD would get a high margin license and potential to extend its market share from its current 13.3 percent and and Intel’s 70 percent.

Our close friend and industry legend, Jon Peddie, reports that Intel had 71.3 percent of market share in Q2 2017. Mighty Nvidia has 15.8 percent of the market but Nvidia has very good market share in the highly profitable parts of the market. This is where the Geforce strength and money is coming from.

Why would AMD license to Intel?

Now comes the part when people will question why AMD would license to Intel as AMD has its own IGPs.

AMD has a good roadmap for Ryzen, a CPU without GPU and has yet to ship reasonable qualities of integrated Ryzen mobile codenamed Raven Ridge. AMD will win some market share, but it won’t move mountains and win double digit market share overnight. Also, don’t underestimate the power of Intel to come back and give AMD a hard time. It took AMD almost a decade to cook and ship Zen and it would be naïve to expect that Intel won’t come back hard with future products.

Let’s say that there are 200 million Intel IGPs a year. Licensing Radeon to Intel would open AMD all of that as high margin profit. If you don’t believe in high profit margins with licensing, just ask Qualcomm QTL, which makes extremely good profits based on its IP, well when customers pay for what they take.

It just makes sense that during the negotiation for Vega and Kaby Lake G integration that AMD and Intel touched the licensing topic. It is just symptomatic that both AMD and Intel strictly refuse to talk about it, and believe me, we asked on multiple occasions.

AMD has released its newest Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition 17.10.2 graphics driver which includes optimizations for Destiny 2, Assassin's Creed: Origins and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus games, initial support for Windows 10 Fall Creators Update as well as a couple of bug fixes.

According to the official release notes, the RSCRE 17.10.2 brings initial support for Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. It also adds optimizations for Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus with up to eight percent better performance on RX Vega 56 8GB and up to four percent better performance on RX 580 8GB graphics cards, optimizations for Destiny 2 with up to 43 percent improvement on RX Vega 56 8GB and up to 50 percent improvement on RX 580 8GB as well as optimizations for Assassin's Creed: Origins with up to 16 percent improvement on RX Vega 56 8GB and up to 13 percent improvement on RX 580 8GB graphics card. That's a lot of improvements, fixing a lot of annoying bugs.

Bear in mind that most of these performance improvements are at 2560x1440 resolution (except for Assassin's Creed: Origins where the 13 percent improvement on RX 580 was on 1920x1080 resolution) and mostly at high presets, so these will most surely vary depending on the configuration and settings.

In addition to these optimizations, the new RSCRE 17.10.2 driver also brings a new GPU Workload toggle in Radeon Settings which allows users to switch between graphics or compute workloads on select Radeon RX 500, Radeon RX 400, Radeon R9 390, Radeon R9 380, Radeon R9 290 and Radeon R9 285 series graphics cards. The new driver also adds compute workload support for up to 12 Radeon RX 400, Radeon RX 500 or Radeon RX Vega series graphics on Windows 10 OS.

There are also a couple of fixed issues including minor corruption in PUBG, crash or system hang issue in Hearts of Iron IV, fixed issue with failing to apply user adjusted voltage in Radeon Wattman, fixed uninstall issue and other minor issues with AMD XConnect and Radeon Settings.

The new RSCRE 17.10.2 driver also supports all graphics cards since AMD Radeon HD 7900/7900 series and is available for Windows 10 and Windows 7 in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

You can check out the full release notes and find the appropriate download links over at AMD's support page.